US Senator Scott, a Florida Republican, recently declared garlic grown and imported from China a threat to national security because it was supposedly fertilized with natural manures instead of chemical ones thus making it unfit for human consumption.
I disagree with the notion that American people are a bunch of imbeciles. It completely ignores the fact that the US rulers spend billions of dollars in PR campaigns, marketing promotions: commercials run on all mediums of communications 24/7. I must say that a nation that makes lying legal can not create a civilization and that it eventually collapses before the truth. I think it is a credit to the people’s resilience, not only in the USA, that there is a growing resistance or at least disbelief towards the ruling class.
Thanks for your reply. I attempted to put a longer time context to this to show this condition isn't something that's new. And yes, you're correct, there's a good reason why that is, one of the major ones I briefly explored. One area that begs looking at historically is the promotion of sport as a distraction., not just as a class issue.
Along with sports, there is celebrity culture. We decapitated or castrated traditional monarchs and their systems replacing them with a hidden oligarchy whose representatives are public figures, be they political puppets (like most Presidents) or entertainers (like Zelensky and all movie and sports stars). The human mind and heart in group situations naturally seeks out the leader so these celebrities are trotted out to provide both a suitable facsimile and also cover for the hidden elites who remain unknown. Essentially, We the People swapped out a relatively open (though of course far from perfect) situation headed by a living, breathing individual - and thus vulnerable - human being for a faceless, unaccountable, hidden rule by committee-soviet which, being invisible, cannot easily be excised from the Body Politic.
So that's one aspect of the imbecility you deplore. We live in social systems run by hidden elites deliberately designed to engender collective stupidity. And most of the people who criticize it fail to see the cause or offer practical alternatives, rather they tend to double down on materialism which negates traditional human value systems, embracing various -pseudo-scientific political isms like capitalism, socialism, fascism and communism which are all different notes on the same materialist scale shuffling deck chairs on the sinking civilizational Titanic.
A society without common shared values is Babel and doomed to founder. So founder we will given there is no viable constitutional way to peacefully replace the current corrupt-by-design system. This will be painful and bloody and no doubt millions will die in the process. What is going on right now in Ukraine in Gaza is relatively minor skirmishes. The destruction coming our way may not come via military confrontation by political and economical turmoil.
That said, it is in the nature of reality that things can turn on a dime and the destruction and mayhem predicted above will not come to pass. Anything is possible. But right now it seems that the very imbecility you rightly deplore pretty much guarantees that only internal collapse will pave the way forward for later improvement. But that way involves destruction and grief. (Them's the rools!)
One concept comes to mind immediately - idiotes - described in Dr Wikipedia 😎 as: “The word "idiot" comes from the Greek noun ἰδιώτης idiōtēs 'a private person, individual' (as opposed to the state), 'a private citizen' (as opposed to someone with a political office), 'a common man', 'a person lacking professional skill, layman', later 'unskilled', 'ignorant', derived from the adjective ἴδιος idios ' ....” etc; another is, of course, cited recently a lot, “We’ll know our disinformation is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” – William J. Casey, CIA Director 😘
Anyone ask the senator if he has ever visited a dairy farm and checked into what is done with the manure produced by the cows? Yes, it is rich in nitrogen resulting in algae if extensively used.
OTOH, the manure produced by Congress is indeed not fit for fertilizer.
In some senses the American people are among the most educated in the world. And the traditions of University systems such as California's or Wisconsin's are internationally famous.
The problem is not education, the problem is that Americans tend to believe what the educators tell them. And the educators, as the events of the past few days have demonstrated, are cowed, incapable of standing up to the power exerted by the capitalists and determined to have no colleagues who might do.
It really begins with the Pledge of Allegiance- a barbaric residue and affront to every principle of liberal education.
So far as Hofstadter is concerned his elitist critique of anti-intellectualism was directed at precisely those politicians who-cf Karl reference to the Peoples Party of Ocala Platform fame- who did fight against the influence of wealth in politics. Hofstadter was leading a witch hunt against those he regarded (Henry Wallace?) as descendants of the populists, people like Huey Long (All stand!)
Excellent! My reply to psychohistorian at MoA was related to miseducation. I saw through Hofstadter with three of his books, the one cited, "The American Political Tradition" and "The Age of Reform." I had a peer as US History prof when I returned to college and told him I was going to up the level of difficulty by adding as much extra reading on as I could, would he advise? He was somewhat astounded, so I told him my goal and he understood. He was also in our political realm and a Truth seeker. However, seeing how history could be manipulated to serve a political POV was the real lesson his books delivered and proves the rule that far more than one POV must be studied to arrive at a synthesis when the primary documents aren't available for examination.
It is easy to come up with an extensive list of problems which are getting worse both within the US and in our foreign policy.
Finance and large corporations are extracting resources from the earth, institutions, housing, health, wealth inequality, etc. In other words, a plausible way to understand our condition is that we in the US are being colonized.
The vote in congress to declare that anti-zionism was anti-sematic was the latest downward fall. Was I naïve to think that a settler settler colonial country, the US, would stand up against the Zionist genocide? Have we no morals? This genocide has separated me from the man who was my favorite politician for the last couple of decades, Bernie Sanders. He also supports Ukraine destruction in a proxy war.
The commentary below by a Muslim journalist summarized what I have been sensing for some time. The insoluble problems we are facing are being caused by the real power which is in finance and large corporations. This the deep understanding of majority of the world who has experienced the horrors of colonial rule and can clearly see what is happening to the US and Western Europe, and they are figuring out ways to address the real power through cooperative agreements. The US is blind: It cannot happen here. It is even more unthinkable that we are being colonized than thinking we could loose our democracy.
The realization you mention was seen by a bunch of farmers in North Texas in the mid 1870s; they saw they were controlled by what they called the Money Power, and thus began the rise of the Prairie Populists who might have conquered the presidency but fused with the Democrat Party of Bryan and fizzled out coopted by the Power they opposed. A similar realization was obtained by some during the Great Depression, but their movement lacked the discipline and cohesion of the Populists who came before, although they did attain some very heady goals, the Neutrality Acts being very important along with the financial regs and agencies to enforce those regs. What the Populists of both Eras had that we don't today is knowing how to act as a citizen--AND--not having so many distractions and divide and rule levers being applied.
It's quite likely you were taught little about either group. Miseducation, another American Tradition.
I do enjoy your Sunday sermons. On a somewhat trite note, compared to the other comments, it was great to see 'Guys and Dolls' mentioned. I bought a second hand copy on a whim and watched it the other night. Brilliant script and very entertaining swipe at American society circa 1952. I enjoyed it immensely.
I've already suggested "South Pacific." There're many more that went unnamed. "Auntie Mame" is another, and of course "West Side Story." Amongst those gems are many others with great notoriety. "Hair" was a shocker. "Chicago" was one of Fosse's best. "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" was also a Broadway hit before becoming a film. But how many people who saw those productions on stage or film were able to get the social, cultural and political messages being sent by them?
Yes that final sentence is, I think, an issue. If one accepts that informal censorship operated then and operates now the subtlety needed to get things past the gate-keepers always has the potential to become a popular meme. I'm often reminded of a British comedian sending up the new 1980s Thatcherite encouraged mentality with the phrase 'Loads of money', which was always delivered in a semi-moronic fashion IMO, becoming a very popular expression completely devoid of its sarcastic intention among the general public. Such is life.
I disagree with the notion that American people are a bunch of imbeciles. It completely ignores the fact that the US rulers spend billions of dollars in PR campaigns, marketing promotions: commercials run on all mediums of communications 24/7. I must say that a nation that makes lying legal can not create a civilization and that it eventually collapses before the truth. I think it is a credit to the people’s resilience, not only in the USA, that there is a growing resistance or at least disbelief towards the ruling class.
Thanks for your reply. I attempted to put a longer time context to this to show this condition isn't something that's new. And yes, you're correct, there's a good reason why that is, one of the major ones I briefly explored. One area that begs looking at historically is the promotion of sport as a distraction., not just as a class issue.
Along with sports, there is celebrity culture. We decapitated or castrated traditional monarchs and their systems replacing them with a hidden oligarchy whose representatives are public figures, be they political puppets (like most Presidents) or entertainers (like Zelensky and all movie and sports stars). The human mind and heart in group situations naturally seeks out the leader so these celebrities are trotted out to provide both a suitable facsimile and also cover for the hidden elites who remain unknown. Essentially, We the People swapped out a relatively open (though of course far from perfect) situation headed by a living, breathing individual - and thus vulnerable - human being for a faceless, unaccountable, hidden rule by committee-soviet which, being invisible, cannot easily be excised from the Body Politic.
So that's one aspect of the imbecility you deplore. We live in social systems run by hidden elites deliberately designed to engender collective stupidity. And most of the people who criticize it fail to see the cause or offer practical alternatives, rather they tend to double down on materialism which negates traditional human value systems, embracing various -pseudo-scientific political isms like capitalism, socialism, fascism and communism which are all different notes on the same materialist scale shuffling deck chairs on the sinking civilizational Titanic.
A society without common shared values is Babel and doomed to founder. So founder we will given there is no viable constitutional way to peacefully replace the current corrupt-by-design system. This will be painful and bloody and no doubt millions will die in the process. What is going on right now in Ukraine in Gaza is relatively minor skirmishes. The destruction coming our way may not come via military confrontation by political and economical turmoil.
That said, it is in the nature of reality that things can turn on a dime and the destruction and mayhem predicted above will not come to pass. Anything is possible. But right now it seems that the very imbecility you rightly deplore pretty much guarantees that only internal collapse will pave the way forward for later improvement. But that way involves destruction and grief. (Them's the rools!)
One concept comes to mind immediately - idiotes - described in Dr Wikipedia 😎 as: “The word "idiot" comes from the Greek noun ἰδιώτης idiōtēs 'a private person, individual' (as opposed to the state), 'a private citizen' (as opposed to someone with a political office), 'a common man', 'a person lacking professional skill, layman', later 'unskilled', 'ignorant', derived from the adjective ἴδιος idios ' ....” etc; another is, of course, cited recently a lot, “We’ll know our disinformation is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” – William J. Casey, CIA Director 😘
Anyone ask the senator if he has ever visited a dairy farm and checked into what is done with the manure produced by the cows? Yes, it is rich in nitrogen resulting in algae if extensively used.
OTOH, the manure produced by Congress is indeed not fit for fertilizer.
In some senses the American people are among the most educated in the world. And the traditions of University systems such as California's or Wisconsin's are internationally famous.
The problem is not education, the problem is that Americans tend to believe what the educators tell them. And the educators, as the events of the past few days have demonstrated, are cowed, incapable of standing up to the power exerted by the capitalists and determined to have no colleagues who might do.
It really begins with the Pledge of Allegiance- a barbaric residue and affront to every principle of liberal education.
So far as Hofstadter is concerned his elitist critique of anti-intellectualism was directed at precisely those politicians who-cf Karl reference to the Peoples Party of Ocala Platform fame- who did fight against the influence of wealth in politics. Hofstadter was leading a witch hunt against those he regarded (Henry Wallace?) as descendants of the populists, people like Huey Long (All stand!)
Excellent! My reply to psychohistorian at MoA was related to miseducation. I saw through Hofstadter with three of his books, the one cited, "The American Political Tradition" and "The Age of Reform." I had a peer as US History prof when I returned to college and told him I was going to up the level of difficulty by adding as much extra reading on as I could, would he advise? He was somewhat astounded, so I told him my goal and he understood. He was also in our political realm and a Truth seeker. However, seeing how history could be manipulated to serve a political POV was the real lesson his books delivered and proves the rule that far more than one POV must be studied to arrive at a synthesis when the primary documents aren't available for examination.
It is easy to come up with an extensive list of problems which are getting worse both within the US and in our foreign policy.
Finance and large corporations are extracting resources from the earth, institutions, housing, health, wealth inequality, etc. In other words, a plausible way to understand our condition is that we in the US are being colonized.
The vote in congress to declare that anti-zionism was anti-sematic was the latest downward fall. Was I naïve to think that a settler settler colonial country, the US, would stand up against the Zionist genocide? Have we no morals? This genocide has separated me from the man who was my favorite politician for the last couple of decades, Bernie Sanders. He also supports Ukraine destruction in a proxy war.
The commentary below by a Muslim journalist summarized what I have been sensing for some time. The insoluble problems we are facing are being caused by the real power which is in finance and large corporations. This the deep understanding of majority of the world who has experienced the horrors of colonial rule and can clearly see what is happening to the US and Western Europe, and they are figuring out ways to address the real power through cooperative agreements. The US is blind: It cannot happen here. It is even more unthinkable that we are being colonized than thinking we could loose our democracy.
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The realization you mention was seen by a bunch of farmers in North Texas in the mid 1870s; they saw they were controlled by what they called the Money Power, and thus began the rise of the Prairie Populists who might have conquered the presidency but fused with the Democrat Party of Bryan and fizzled out coopted by the Power they opposed. A similar realization was obtained by some during the Great Depression, but their movement lacked the discipline and cohesion of the Populists who came before, although they did attain some very heady goals, the Neutrality Acts being very important along with the financial regs and agencies to enforce those regs. What the Populists of both Eras had that we don't today is knowing how to act as a citizen--AND--not having so many distractions and divide and rule levers being applied.
It's quite likely you were taught little about either group. Miseducation, another American Tradition.
I do enjoy your Sunday sermons. On a somewhat trite note, compared to the other comments, it was great to see 'Guys and Dolls' mentioned. I bought a second hand copy on a whim and watched it the other night. Brilliant script and very entertaining swipe at American society circa 1952. I enjoyed it immensely.
I've already suggested "South Pacific." There're many more that went unnamed. "Auntie Mame" is another, and of course "West Side Story." Amongst those gems are many others with great notoriety. "Hair" was a shocker. "Chicago" was one of Fosse's best. "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" was also a Broadway hit before becoming a film. But how many people who saw those productions on stage or film were able to get the social, cultural and political messages being sent by them?
Yes that final sentence is, I think, an issue. If one accepts that informal censorship operated then and operates now the subtlety needed to get things past the gate-keepers always has the potential to become a popular meme. I'm often reminded of a British comedian sending up the new 1980s Thatcherite encouraged mentality with the phrase 'Loads of money', which was always delivered in a semi-moronic fashion IMO, becoming a very popular expression completely devoid of its sarcastic intention among the general public. Such is life.